Daughter of the Alpha

Chapter four

One clean swing and the ax sliced through the wood, the loud chop made her flinch. Two pieces fell to the ground with a soft thud. Dylan kicked them over to the rest of the pile and lifted another, placing it on the wide tree stump used as a chopping block. With a grunt, he had split that in two as well.

AJ hung back, watching from behind a snow-wet tree, careful not to make any sound. She had been watching him for a while. It had been almost a week since she had been rescued by him, and it hadn't left her mind once. Even while stubbornly ignoring her father or pretending to care about the Spring Ball, that seemed to be all Lily could talk about, Dylan kept pushing his way into her thoughts. And she didn't know why. She had decided to come to see him that day, decided to thank him properly. But being there, watching him from afar, she wasn't sure it was such a good idea.

Dylan kicked the pieces of wood over to the pile. With his hand, he wiped the sweat of his brow and spat on the ground. He had thrown his coat over the open door, he was dressed in only a thin shirt that AJ was pretty sure used to be white, it was drenched in sweat and clung to his body like a second skin. She bit her lip, he looked different without layers and layers of thick shirts on. She had already noticed he had wide shoulders, and she knew that he was strong, but the shape of him took her by complete surprise. If she hadn't thought him to be a miserable, horribly man she would have admired his wide, shapely chest, his firm-looking stomach, and bulging arms. Good thing he was a horrible despicable man.

He lodged the ax in the stump and stretched, the crack in his back was audible even to her and she stood quite far away. He sighed contently and twisted his spine back and forth. "What part of 'leave me alone' didn't you understand?" he called to the sky.

"Oh," AJ coughed out, stepping out from behind the tree. He had spotted her, of course he had. Did he know how long she had been staring at him? She had debated with herself about whether or not she should just turn around and walk home, it was too late. He showed no surprise at seeing her, his expression didn't change once while she walked closer to him. But then again. She couldn't tell behind the mess he called hair and bushy beard.

"What do you want?" he demanded when she came close enough.

"I'm just- I just came to- I wanted to say thank you for saving me," she coughed out, almost afraid to look him in the eye.

"You already have," he pointed out. He was breathing heavily, his thick arms crossed over his chest like always, it only made his biceps tighten and AJ had a hard time focusing.

"Not properly. I shouldn't have called you names or anything, not after what you did, I'm sorry," she quickly forced out. "I brought you something, to show my appreciation." She patted the backpack, hung over her one shoulder. "My mom is an amazing cook, I've packed some stuff I thought you might like." He raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "I promise you don't have to add water to any of it," she added with a grin.

"You're here to say thank you?" he asked, his deep voice rumbling through his chest. She nodded. "Good, go on ahead." He walked past her, picking up an armful of freshly chopped logs and marched to the tarpaulin hanging from the side of the hut, he stacked the wood up against the wall under it. Looking back at her, motioning to the rest of the pile on the ground with his head he said, "Well?"

Was he serious? He couldn't expect her to do that, could he? But he stood there, waiting, tucking the tarpaulin back to give them space to stack. Damn, he was serious. "Alright," she huffed, placing the bag on the ground next to the wide-open door. She picked up a couple of wooden logs and stacked them with a grunt on top of the others.

"Not done much manual labor in your lifetime, I assume?" he asked, scratching his beard he watched her with amusement twinkling in his eyes.

"Oh shut up," AJ mumbled and picked up a few more pieces.